Arthuriana -- all things King Arthur ! discussion
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What was your first Arthurian experience?
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Book wise: Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 and Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 2Movie: Disney's Sword In The Stone, and later Excalibur
Landscape: Dumbarton Rock and the Kingdom of Strathclyde, later Arthur's Seat and Lothian.
Fairly sure my first memorable Arthurian experience was The Hidden Treasure of Glaston which I got through one of those school book clubs for a whopping 50 cents back in the early 60s. It was about the supposed burial site of Arthur.When I read Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin recently it brought back all those memories.
Pretty sure I was also much taken with the Wyeth illustrated Boy's King Arthur.
Believe it or not, I think it must have been The Once and Future King which was my first introduction to written Arthur.
I'd have to call it a tie between Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising and Malory. I read Le Morte d'Arthur at a pretty tender age, around ten I think :)
Enid Blyton's Tales of Brave Adventure, I think. Or Disney's The Sword in the Stone.
Paul wrote: "Believe it or not, I think it must have been The Once and Future King which was my first introduction to written Arthur."I believe it, Paul - 'Once and Future King' might have been my next Arthurian book after Cooper's series. I remember being very amused and surprised by the humor in it. It was years before I saw the Disney movie though.
I think it was probably the musical Camelot since my parents used to watch it all the time. It is a tie between that and Sword in the Stone, I don't know which came first :)
My love affair started with the book "The Once and Future King" as well. So perfectly tragic. But then my mother told me that when I was a child of 2 or 3, my favorite book had been the picture book of "The Sword in the Stone" and that I knew every word by heart and if you missed one I would make you start the whole book over again. I didn't even remember that, but I guess on some level it stuck with me.
I think my first Arthurian book that made me fall in love with the legend was The Mists of Avalon.
My mom gave me King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table when I was 12.But I'll have to admit after discovering the show Merlin I became interested again.
For me I think it was visiting King Arthur's Labyrinth at Land's End when I was very little indeed. I'm not sure how young I was, but most of my childhood holidays were in Cornwall or Wales, so there were always lots of interesting Arthurian things to go and see.The first book that I specifically remember was The Crystal Caveby Mary Stewart, which I read when I was eleven (although I think the main reason I remember this book was because I was young enough to be utterly scandalised by the naughty bits).
Mod
Did you like Grave Goods, Sandra? I havent read it.
My introduction to the Matter of Britain was The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White*. I remember reading and rereading a beat up paperback in my grade school days: The Forest Sauvage, Wart and his lessons with Merlin, and King Pellinore and the Questing Beast.In high school, it was Thomas Berger's Arthur Rex and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. One hundred fifty knights vs. 150,000 screaming Saxons - and the knights win!; and an abiding love affair (literary) with Morgan (aka Morgaine, Morgana, etc., etc.).
* For some enigmatic, purely GoodReads reason the link goes to the Cliff Notes of The Once and Future King. I tried using just The Sword in the Stone and that linked to Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth - talk about blasphemies!
Re message 13: Of the three Mistress of the Art of Death books, Grave Goods was my least favorite apart from the good memories the Glastonbury/Arthur parts dredged up. Excellent feeling of the "magic" still attached to the Arthur legends in those parts of the book. The main "mystery" was fairly easy to figure out but the ending left you both anxious for and fearing the next installment. I listened to the unabridged audio version. Love the reader, Kate Reading. You should definitely read the series from the start if you haven't yet.
(Digression for technical tip...)Terence, FYI - when you want to add a link to a book, click the words "add book/author" right above the comment box to search and find the correct one; for example The Sword in the Stone.
You can also create your own link using a book's ID number. When you're on the Goodreads page for a book, its ID number will appear in the address bar of your browser as part of the URL. Note the number then use "book:" then some linky text, then a vertical line (above the backslash on your keyboard), then the id number, all enclosed in square brackets. For example The Sword in the Stone's ID number is 316845, so if you put this in square brackets:
book:here it is|316845
it will appear like this:
here it is
Michele wrote: "(Digression for technical tip...)Terence, FYI - when you want to add a link to a book, click the words "add book/author" right above the comment box to search and find the correct one; for exampl..."
Oh, that's good to know. Thanks :-)
Though it's still annoying that pasting the title (sometimes w/ author) doesn't always do the trick. I mean, how many other books should show up under "The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White"?
I mean, how many other books should show up under "The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White"?LOL! I know, sometimes the title matching is totally off base. Then again, sometime the books Amazon suggests for me, and the movies Netflix suggests for me, are equally bizarre and inappropriate, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised ;)
The first thing that got me into the Arthurian Legend was watching The Sword in the Stone as a child. We never studied anything Arthurian relted in highschool so it wasn't until I finished highschool that I got back into it.
I remember reading Mists of Avalon when I was in middle school (6th grade maybe?). I carried that massive book around school with me. People thought I was bizarre to actually be reading a book, let alone that big, lol. Definitely not my first Arthuriana, but it was memorable!
Idyls Of The Kingby Alfred Lord Tennyson
We read it in high school and I then forgot about it,until in my early 20's I read The Mary Stewart Trillogy and Once and Future King and went on from there. Just recently (now in my late 40's) got "Arthurian Fever" once again and for the past year have been reading every thing I can get my hands on. Thanks for asking
Interesting variety of answers.
I watched Disney's the Sword in the Stone and the musical Camelot all the time when I was a kid, and then I read The Once and Future King in junior high. I don't think I was introduced to Tennyson or Malory until high school.
Probably Disney's "The Sword in the Stone" but once I could read I found an old 1930s volume of a "Book of Knowledge" that included many myths and legends, including King Arthur, all with illustrations in Art Deco style. After, I moved on to Roger Lancelyn Greene's stories of King Arthur which I loved and my daughter is currently reading. I think that my next book was "The Once and Future King" and I was pleasantly surprised at the differences from the Disney version.
Mary Stewart. Still my favorite series. Although I really like Lawheads Taliesin series also. I've read everything Arthur I could get my hands on, however judging from some of the books you've all mentioned, I haven't read everything yet.
It started for me when a friend told me I should read "The Squire's Tales" by Gerald Morris. After that I was hooked and read more of the traditional legends. BBC "Merlin" had an impact, too.
Anna wrote: "Hello all. I've been absent from this group for a long time, but had an epiphany moment yesterday afternoon remembering what truly was my first Arthurian (loosely) experience and had to share. Has ..."Saw it a long time ago and got the novelization lurking somewhere on my bookshelves!
My first exposure to Arthur--and still my favorite book--was The Once and Future King. My granny gave me a copy when I was ten (a bit too young to understand anything beyond "The Sword in the Stone"), and I have been grateful to her ever since! I actually got the inscription from Arthur's tombstone--rex quondam rexque futurus--as a tattoo on my shoulder recently.
My first Arthurian experience was taking the part of Sir Kay in a play at infant school. I must have been 5 or 6 years old and it obviously made a great impression on me. Sir Kay has always been one of my favourite knights, even though he has usually been treated rather badly by most authors.I particularly like the story early on in Malory when the young Arthur and Guenevere are threatened by the Five Kings. Arthur is travelling with three nights, Kay, Gawain and Griflet, and they fear that the Queen will be taken and killed:
'Lo,' seyde sir Kayus, 'yonder be tho fyve kynges. Lette us go to them and macche hem.'
'That were foly,' seyde sir Gawayne, 'for we ar but four, and they be fyve.'
'That is trouth,' seyde sir Gryfflette.
'No force,' seyd sir Kayus. 'I woll undertake for two of the beste of hem, and than may ye three undirtake for all the othir three.'
And therewithall sir Kay lette his horse renne as faste as he myght to encountir with one of them, and strake one of the kynges thorow the shelde and also the body a fadom, that the kynge felle to the erthe starke dede. That saw sir Gawayne and ran unto anothir kyng so harde that he smote hym downe and thorow the body with a spere, that he felle to the erthe dede. Anone sir Arthur ran to anothir and smote hym thorow the body with a spere, that he fell to the erthe dede. Then sir Gryfflet ran to the fourth kynge and gaff hym suche a falle that his necke brake in sonder. Than sir Kay ran unto the fyfth kynge and smote him so harde on the helme that the stroke clave the helme and hede to the erthe.
'That was well stryken,' seyde kynge Arthur, 'and worshipfully haste thou holde thy promyse; therefore I shalle honoure the whyle that I lyve.'
And therewithall they sette the quene in a barge into Humbir. But allwayes quene Gwenyvere praysed sir Kay for his dedis and seyde, 'What layde that ye love and she love you nat agayne, she were gretly to blame. And amonge all laydes,' seyde the quene, 'I shall bere your noble fame, for ye spake a grete worde and fulfilled it worshipfully.'
I'll see if I can dig it out now and add it to the bookshelf - give me a few minutes.
There you go, it's now on the group bookshelf, or you can click on the link below. It took me a bit longer as I had to do a cover scan and tidy up the book data a bit: OCD strikes again! :-D
Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Stephen Weeks
Well, Sean Connery is Sean Connery whether he's playing an otherworldly Green Knight, an immortal Spanish/Egyptian swordsman, A suave English spy, a Bronze Age Greek king, a Russian submarine captain, etc. But I guess that's part of his appeal.The book is about as good as the film, as I remember. I haven't read it since 1984. Not bad enough for me to get rid of it, but haven't been tempted back. Hope you find a copy and we could maybe read it together and compare notes.
I remember that the bit about the problem of going to the toilet when you're bolted into a suit of armour, which made me laugh when I saw the film all those years ago. I still have a juvenile sense of humour, so it would probably still tickle me!
Apart from various books I remember a rather funny cartoon series, was it called "Arthur and the Square Knights of the Round Table"? I just remember being hugely entertained by it.
The movie Camelot. After that, I had to read/watch every King Arthur thing I could get my hands on!The first book I read, though (after watching Camelot) was The Once and Future King, like a lot of people above. T. H. White is still the master.
That's cool! Let me know when you're ready to read it :-)
Anna wrote: "Michael wrote: "That's cool! Let me know when you're ready to read it :-)"Thesis complete. Ready to read if you're still interested!"
I'm still up for it - need to finish the Group Read I'm currently engaged on, but as it's a short(ish) story, shouldn't be too long. How about starting on Saturday, 28 May?
Anna, I've taken the liberty of creating a separate discussion thread for Sword of the Valiant, here.
I think I'll order a copy and join you.
When I read The Once and Future King by T.H. White I was hooked. I've read a lot books about King Arthur but T.H. White's is still my favorite.
My first "first-hand" Arthurian experience happened long after a bought my first book on the subject (back in the 90s).I woke up about 10 months ago and discovered I'd turned into an elder Uther Pendragon, complete with a lengthy turnip nose. I mean it could have been worse; I might have been a cockroach.
And since that very day, everything I've written is a total lie.
I believe you. Only zany old Uther can tangle the Demon's Door Bolt and Kafka together in a literary-reference sentence. If I was feeling clever I'd work in... Gogol's The Nose... but I'm not. As to the question, I'd have been a kid and I can't remember. But yes, The Once and Future King and shortly after (have I told this story?) I found the OUP Eugene Vinaver Malory in a newsagents (?) and knew what that was from TH White and pounced. What was that doing in a newsagents with ratty trashy paperbacks? I was too young to search out that calibre of book, I'd scarcely begun to buy my own books. So I ran slap-bang into original undiluted Malory and that's gotta be fate.
When I was a kid, my grandmother Ida Sandretto cooked with King Arthur flour.I had a bad year in my third grade, got the measles, chicken pox, and mumps, so I fell behind in reading. That summer I was tutored by the lady across the street... Mrs. Wrisley... who had a speech impediment, but who also wound up being my teacher the following year. The books I had to read were Kipling and The Tales of King Arthur. :)
Movie: Sword in the Stone (Disney)Book: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
TV movie: Merlin (1998)
Besides the Disney version (when I was around 4 years old?), a simplified children's version of the proper Le Morte d'Arthur. I must have been around 5 or 6 years old with the latter.
I had to have known something of Arthurian lore before this, but the most significant was seeing Richard Burton perform as Arthur in the Lerner Lowe musical Camelot in Spring 1981 (Pantages Theatre, L.A.)
Jill wrote: "I had to have known something of Arthurian lore before this, but the most significant was seeing Richard Burton perform as Arthur in the Lerner Lowe musical Camelot in Spring 1981 (Pantages Theatre..."Obviously a night to remember! Did it live up to expectations?
I was 11 or 12 and laid low with the Asian flu compounded with whooping cough. Confined to bed I picked up King Arthur and the Knights of the Table Round and became engrossed. Sadly, the last 25 or so pages were missing. I did not find out that most everyone dies at the end until I returned to the U.S. and found another copy.
Arthuriana -- all things King Arthur !
Books mentioned in this topic
Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (other topics)Works Malory (other topics)
The Once and Future King (other topics)
The Sword in the Stone (other topics)
Grave Goods (other topics)
More...
It made me think of my first experience with Arthur, and got me wondering how others got into it.
For me, it was Susan Cooper's 'Dark is Rising' series, and 'The Grey King' in particular. The Arthurian connection in the series is not the main focus, but it was clearly important to the story and was just enough of a tease for me to make me want to know more. Little did I know just how deeply that tease would draw me in!
What about you guys? Do you remember your first time?